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Individual Barkhausen Pulses of Ferroelastic Nanodomains

Reinis Ignatans, Dragan Damjanovic, and Vasiliki Tileli
Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 167601 – Published 12 October 2021
Physics logo See synopsis: Real-Time Monitoring of Nanoscale Polarization Switching
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Abstract

Ferroelectric materials, upon electric field biasing, display polarization discontinuities known as Barkhausen jumps, a subclass of a more general phenomenon known as crackling noise. Herein, we follow and visualize in real time the motion of single 90° needle domains induced by an electric field applied in the polarization direction of the prototypical ferroelectric BaTiO3, inside a transmission electron microscope. The nature of motion and periodicity of the Barkhausen pulses leads to distinctive interactions between domains forming a herringbone pattern. Remarkably, the tips of the domains do not come into contact with the body of the perpendicular domain, suggesting the presence of strong electromechanical fields around the tips of the needle domains. Additionally, interactions of the domains with the lattice result in relatively free movement of the domain walls through the dielectric medium, indicating that their motion-related activation energy depends only on weak Peierls-like potentials. Control over the kinetics of ferroelastic domain wall motion can lead to novel nanoelectronic devices pertinent to computing and data storage applications.

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  • Received 1 March 2021
  • Accepted 3 September 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.167601

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

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Real-Time Monitoring of Nanoscale Polarization Switching

Published 12 October 2021

Researchers have visualized the nanoscale jumps in a ferroelectric’s polarization that are thought to play a key role in how well some ferroelectric devices function.

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Authors & Affiliations

Reinis Ignatans, Dragan Damjanovic, and Vasiliki Tileli*

  • Institute of Materials, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Station 12, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

  • *Correspondending author. vasiliki.tileli@epfl.ch

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Issue

Vol. 127, Iss. 16 — 15 October 2021

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